12/03/24
August 13, 2006
Liverpool Crouches to 2-1 Charity Shield Victory : In the season pre-opener that pits last season's EPL champions against the FA Cup champions, Liverpool scored a moral victory before the EPL 06-07 season starts next week. Couldn't find anything on YouTube as of this writing. But, on a related note: A couple of Guardian write-ups on How Chelsea and Roman are killing football and Why Liverpool could win the EPL. Are you ready for some futbol?
posted by worldcup2002 to soccer at 01:39 PM - 18 comments
Am I ever, and this is an excellent start to the year.
posted by chicobangs at 02:52 PM on August 13, 2006
Riise made my day with that upfield race and beautiful rocket but I was disappointed that Crouchie didn't break out the Robo. Chelsea had a number of strong individual efforts like Shevchenko, Essien, Geremi and Wright-Phillips but never got any connectivity except for the goal. Trox, why do you see Gunners jumping over Reds to second? They lost Bergkamp to retirement, Reyes seems headed to Madrid, Cole may yet go to Chelsea and the only signing (though its a good one) is Rosicky. Reds got Bellamy, Gonzalez, Pennant, Bowden is back from injury, got rid of Cisse (whose mouth spent more than his goals earned) and may yet bring in Kuyt or Miroslav Klose; the squad has depth that Arsenal no longer seems to have. Chelsea Liverpool Tottenham (added Dimitar Berbatov and Didier Zokora and Aaron Lennon was one of the bright spots for England in Germany) Arsenal Chelsea do not get more help at the back and Gallas must be settled or this season will not be the runaway that last year was, and I think Mourinho was foolish to let go both Duff and Gudjonson while keeping SWP and Paulo Ferreira.
posted by billsaysthis at 04:57 PM on August 13, 2006
C'mon, let's have some confidence here! Liverpool Chelsea Arsenal Man U
posted by worldcup2002 at 06:08 PM on August 13, 2006
I'll be a contrarian. You can never rule out Man U, as much as we'd like to in our hearts. Chelsea (boring, but not as easily as the last two seasons!) Man Utd (still have massive depth in the squad) Arsenal (the young 'uns are all a year older) Liverpool (still haven't got the goals in them) Spurs (promising, but little depth)
posted by owlhouse at 06:45 PM on August 13, 2006
Chelsea Liverpool Man U Arsenal Tottenham Relegation Bait (in no order) Sheff U Wigan Watford I really don't want to see Wigan or Watford go down because Wigan's run last year was astonishing and Watford has Jay DeMerit. But Wigan has lost Jason Roberts and Jimmy Bullard and could likely lose Chimbonda, too. Losing those three players doesn't seem to bode well for their upcoming campaign.
posted by igottheblues at 09:25 PM on August 13, 2006
I agree with owlhouse's rankings.
posted by squealy at 04:54 AM on August 14, 2006
I look at Arsenal with an optimist's eye. It's the fan in me. Realistically, they could finish anywhere from 1st to 5th. As for jumping Liverpool, did those additions suddenly cure their seeming inability to score goals at times (which happened for long stretches last season)?
posted by trox at 08:48 AM on August 14, 2006
Couldn't find anything on YouTube as of this writing. There's some stuff now: Match of the Day highlights. Hopefully Chelsea will find their feet soon! :)
posted by blarp at 09:48 AM on August 14, 2006
cheers, blarp - that made my day. It was reassuring to see the off-the-ball running of the Reds players, and the disorganization of the Chelsea defence. While Liverpool players were making space for themselves, the Chelsea defenders tended to sit back and give it to them. Good also to see Gonzalez and even Bellamy providing crosses from the left, and Crouchie not pulling anyone's hair before scoring a goal. And yes, trox, the new hirings are leading to goals. The winning goal from Crouchie came from new boy Bellamy's cross. Previously, in their Champs League qualifier against Maccabi Haifa, Bellamy scored and another newbie Mark Gonzalez got the winner. I won't say they've solved the puzzle until I see them scoring 3 goals every game ;-) but it looks promising.
posted by worldcup2002 at 12:26 PM on August 14, 2006
posted by worldcup2002 at 12:40 PM on August 14, 2006
At the top : Chelsea Liverpool Arsenal Tottenham Man U and at the bottom : Reading Wigan Watford Sheffield United
posted by Mr Bismarck at 01:54 PM on August 14, 2006
Agreed on Bellamy. I've only seen highlights, but the guy looks like he's got skills and hustle. If he's consistent and can keep putting the ball in the box like that, then yeah, the Reds should be finishing a lot better this year.
posted by chicobangs at 02:43 PM on August 14, 2006
Surprised to see two votes for Latics to go down after such a good year. True they lost some good players but they did add Landzaat and maybe Heskey has one more good season in the legs. Doesn't seem to be enough to put them in danger of the drop.
posted by billsaysthis at 03:15 PM on August 14, 2006
I'm an Ipswich fan, Bill. We finished fifth in the prem, qualified for Europe and our boss won manager of the season. Then we added about £9,000,000 of talent to the team that did that and within 12 months had been relegated and were in administration.
posted by Mr Bismarck at 06:46 PM on August 14, 2006
MrB, so that's down to jealousy?
posted by billsaysthis at 10:39 PM on August 15, 2006
Gee thanks. No, it's not jealousy, I was just pointing out that "a good year" + [some good players] != more success. Anyone of these smaller teams is in danger of the drop, regardless of what they did last year. I think that a lot of the middle-lower-pack order in the prem is sorted on confidence and getting off to a good start and Wigan have a soft opening, (Newcastle, Reading, Portsmouth, Everton, Watford), so if they get off to a flier, who knows where they end up. I'd be delighted to see Wigan challenge for European places all the way through to the end of the season again, because as I look up from the bottom of the Championship, it would give me some hope that we could get back up there again, sometime before I die.
posted by Mr Bismarck at 04:52 AM on August 16, 2006
Not soft enough for Latics today, at least. They played well but not near well enough against a team hurting for strikers. Not that my Reds did much better against a drop target.
posted by billsaysthis at 03:31 PM on August 19, 2006
Chelsea wasn't impressive today apart from a singular effort from Lampard and Shevchenko to score a beautiful goal. Maybe this year is the year that all the egos come out of the closet and they come apart at the seams. You'll not catch me seriously predicting that thought. Top four for the season (from the wild guess department): 1. Chelsea 2. Arsenal 3. Liverpool 4. Spurs Championship bound (see above) 18. Fulham 19. Sheffield United 20. Watford